21 March 2013

A Missouri man has been charged with "third-degree assault on a law enforcement officer and with obstructing government operations" after allegedly rushing the stage and "commandeering the microphone" from Kansas City Mayor Sly James' during his State of the City address of Tuesday.

As the mayor was giving his speech before an audience of about 250 people at the Gem Theater, a man went on stage and commandeered the microphone. The court file alleges that when the mayor’s police-provided bodyguard, Marlon Buie, grabbed him, Black resisted Buie by punching and swinging his arms. ... According to the court record, Black acknowledged in a statement to police that he interrupted the mayor by throwing a flag to the floor and yelling obscenities.

Black apparently was irate about crime and conditions in Kansas City. Watch the incident WHEN YOU JUMP ...

08 December 2012

It was exactly one week ago when Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher his killed his girlfriend—also the mother of his newborn daughter—before taking his own life. Her name was Kasandra Perkins. The young' mother's name and the issue of domestic violence has rarely been mentioned in the media narrative that has focused on Belcher.

Marc Lamont Hill hosted a great Huff Post Live discussion on Kassandra Perkins, domestic violence and "Burying the Real Victims." "Why have we only heard about [Belcher]?" he asked.
Watch AFTER THE JUMP ...

15 October 2011

Kansas City's anti-gay and "pro-life" Roman Catholic bishop has been indicted on a charge of "failing to protect children" after he and his diocese waited five months to report to police that "hundreds of images of child pornography" were discovered on a priest's computer, reports the AP.

Bishop Robert Finn becomes the first U.S. bishop criminally charged with sheltering an abusive clergyman and the "highest-rank clergyman charged" in the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandals, reports the Kansas City Star.

A Jackson County grand jury on Oct. 6 secretly indicted both Finn and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph on misdemeanor charges of failure to report child abuse in a case involving a priest facing child pornography charges. As Finn and the diocese denied wrongdoing Friday after appearing in court, news of the charges roiled the nation and the Catholic world.

The charges were announced Friday at a news conference by Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker. "This is a significant charge," Baker said. "To my knowledge, a charge like this has not been leveled before."

Finn as a member of the clergy and the diocese as the operator of schools are required under Missouri law to report reasonable suspicions of child abuse. But they did not do that for five months in the case of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, the indictment alleges. In a statement, the diocese said its lawyers entered a plea of not guilty for the diocese.

Ratigan faces multiple child pornography charges in state and federal court. A separate lawsuit filed in June accuses Finn and the diocese of violating federal and state child pornography and child abuse laws when they allegedly concealed evidence that the priest "was creating child pornography by photographing and being sexually inappropriate with young parish girls."

The Kansas City Star has published an editorial demanding the Bishop's resignation, saying that Finn "must go."

Bishop Finn is affiliated with the Opus Dei movement. Finn has called for "war" against gay rights and pro-choice activists. Kiddie porn producing priests? Not so much.

NBA All Star Weekend begins and Blake Griffin loses a friend to cancer. "When reporters entered the locker room after the [Timberwolves] game, Griffin's [head] was in his hands after receiving a phone call and he was sobbing. Griffin, who is scheduled to compete in the dunk contest on Saturday, did not speak to reporters."

Edmonton: Soldier sentenced to 12 months for punching gay man and bragging about it on Facebook.

Marsha Ambrosius discusses her new album and the fantastic new video for "Far Away". "For two openly gay males—black males at that—to be shown in [that] light was a very surreal moment for many. A point in making the video was to [show] they were happy and in love and open to loving one another in front of whomever, and to establish their relationship outside of what the world thought; they thought the world of each other."